Safety armor jacket



July 24, 1956 A. LIPSHITZ SAFETY ARMOR JACKET Filed Sept. 23,

SAFETY ARMOR JACKET Abraham Lipshitz, Jamaica, N. Y.

Application September 23, 1954, Serial No. 457,979

2 Claims. (Cl. 22.5)

This invention relates to safety armor jacket.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a safety jacket adapted when worn by the worker to protect him against injury from flying glass resulting from the exploding of glass tubes, chemical laboratory equipment, or similar articles.

It is another object of the invention to provide a safety armor garment which will not only give protection to the worker but which is easy to remove from the worker should the worker be injured as a result of an explosion to dress any wound which he may receive on an unprotected area of the body.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a safety armor garment having heavy thick parts wherein the parts, when joined to one another, are joined by mesh material that can be folded and which serves as ventilation above the arms and shoulder to give some comfort to the worker.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide a safety armor jacket wherein the arm portions can be readily opened without the worker having to slide his arms therethrough and wherein the front protective portion can be disconnected at one side of the garment and over the shoulder, and readily removed from the front of the worker, and wherein adequate union of one side of the arm can be had with the open shoulder portion of the front of the garment to give protection to the shoulder while at the same time permitting the disengagement of the front armor portion from the back armor portion without interference of the sleeve portion at the one side of the jacket.

Other objects of the invention are to provide a safety armor jacket having the above objects in mind which is of simple construction, inexpensive to manufacture, has a minimum number of parts, light in weight, compact, easy to put on, easy to remove, effective and efficient in use.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is a front elevational view of the safety armor jacket constructed according to one form of the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary portion of one of the sleeve structures and looking in the direction 2-2 of Fig.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary open plan view of one sleeve and the open shoulder, illustrating the manner in which the parts of the jacket can be removed and released from the body of the worker;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional view taken through the connection of the front and rear parts and as viewed on line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the shoulder area with illustration being made as to the manner in which the shoulder strip on the rear part of the jacket is lifted to separate the front and rear parts;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of a modified form of the invention utilizing slide fastener connections Patented July 24, 1956 to secure the parts together and wherein one of the sleeve structures is only connected to the front part and removable therewith from the rear part.

Referring now particularly to Figs. 1 to 5, 10 and 11 respectively represent front and rear armor parts of the jacket. These parts are permanently joined together through a collar portion 12 that is continuous at one side of the shoulder and separable at the other shoulder, as seen in Fig. 5, and where the rear part has a mesh strip 13 connected thereto and having buttonhole openings 14 adapted to respectively engage with buttons 15 on the shoulder of the front part 10. This mesh material is of plastic and sufiiciently open to give ventilation through the shoulder area of the garment.

Attached to the rear part 11 adjacent to the shoulder thereof is a sleeve structure 16. The connection is indicated by stitchings 17, Fig. 3. This sleeve structure 16 is formed of two armor parts 18 and 19 joined together by a plastic mesh strip 20. This mesh strip joins these parts and gives ventilation along the arm. The part 18 has a further ventilating strip 21 running along its connecting edge which has snap fastener elements 22 thereon to join with cooperating snap fastener elements 23 on the part 19 which is folded downwardly over the front of the arm and joined with the part 18 through the strip 21. The front armor part 19 of the arm structure 16 has an extension 24 adapted to lie under the front part 10 adjacent to the shoulder so as to give further protection thereto and prevent separation of the sleeve from the front part 10 when the garment is worn.

The front and rear parts are further permanently joined to one another at the opposite shoulder by a ventilating plastic strip 25 that forms a part of an arm structure 26. This ventilating strip extends from the lower end of the arm structure 26 to the collar 12 to further join the front and rear armor parts 10 and 11 together. This arm structure has a front armor part 27 and a rear armor part 28 that are joined by the mesh strip 25. The sleeve structure 26 can be opened and the sleeve armor parts 27 and 28 separated from one another by unfastening snap fasteners 29 and 30, Fig. 2. The fasteners 29 are carried by a mesh strip 31 attached to the rear part 28 of the arm structure 26 and the fastener elements 30 are connected to the front part 27 of the arm structure 26. This strip 31 When taken with the strip 25 gives full ventilation along the length of the sleeve structure 26.

The upper ends of the sleeve structure 26 has both of its armor parts 27 and 28 respectively joined to the front and rear armor parts 10 and 11 as indicated by stitchings 32 on both the front and rear parts.

Under the arms of the worker the front and rear parts will be secured together at the side edges thereof by a ventilating mesh strip 33 and a ventilating mesh strip 34 secured to the rear part 11 by stitching or cement as indicated at 35, Fig. 4, and having button openings for receiving buttons 36 running along the front part. Sufiicient opening is allowed under the arm structures, as indicated respectively at 37 and 38, to provide a ventilating opening under the arm and to permit easy movement of the arm structures 16 and 26.

Each of the armored parts are formed of heavy layers serving as front and rear faces of the part and interposed by a sponge rubber sheet 39. The structural composition of these parts can best be seen in Fig. 4. The face layers can be formed of either plastic sheet or of cloth material. The edge parts have the layers joined by stitchings indicated at 40. The sponge rubber can be adhered to the layers by cement or other suitable means, but will be retained further by the stitchings 40 on the edges of the parts. While specific reference has been made to the front part 10 being so constructed, it shall be understood that the rear part is similarly constructed and also that the parts of each arm structure are constructed in this manner. These armor parts are sufficient to withstand the blow of flying glass which may result from an explosion of radio tubes, glass bottles or other injurious flying pieces which a Worker might encounter on the job.

Should the worker be injured, it will be seen that he can be easily removed from the garment by simply detaching the shoulder strip 13, opening the arm structure 16, and the side strip 34 so that the front part can be pivoted from the worker along the strip 33 and the opposite shoulder strip 25. To further remove the garment, the strip 33 can be released from the front part and the strip 31 of the arm structure 26 released. With this garment there is no need to cause the workers arms to he slid through the arm structures or the neck through the collar 12. The jacket can thus be quickly and easily removed. It may also be as easily assembled upon the worker.

In Fig. 6, there is shown a modified construction wherein slide fasteners are used as the means for securing the parts together. This jacket includes a front armor part 45, a rear armor part 46 and slide fasteners 47, one being shown, located at the respective opposite sides of the parts, for joining the parts together under the arm. By means of these slide fasteners, the parts are releasably joined and can be separated or joined, as desired, for removing the jacket or for putting the jacket on. These parts 45 and 46 are joined permanently by a collar 48 separable at one side of the jacket as in the jacket above described. Adjacent to the separation of the collar 48 and one shoulder of the jacket is a slide fastener device 49 which holds the parts together over the shoulder in a releasable manner. By opening the slide fastener, the shoulder portions of the parts can be severed from one another. An arm structure 51 is secured by stitching as indicated at 51 to the front parts 45 adjacent to the shoulder fastener 49. The arm structure 50 is not attached to the rear part 46 but only to the front part 45 so that upon removing the garment from the worker, the entire arm structure can be lifted along with the front part from the rear part when the slide fastener 49 has been released from the shoulder. The arm structure 50 has a top ventilating strip 52 which joins the armored parts of the sleeve together and a slide fastener device 53 therebelow for further and releasably joining the armor parts of the sleeve together. To remove the front part 45, it is only necessary to release the slide fasteners 53 and 49 and lift the arm structure 50 and the front part 45 from the worker and to the left, as viewed in Fig. 6.

At the opposite side of the jacket is an arm structure 54 which joins its armor parts together by a mesh strip 55 that extends over the shoulder as indicated at 55' to the collar 48. The arm structure 54 is secured by stitching as indicated at 56 to both the front and rear parts. Arm openings 57 and 58 are provided under the respective arm structures 50 and 54. The arm structure 54 has a slide fastener device 59 which can be operated to release the arm structure from the worker.

It should now be apparent that there has been provided an effective armor jacket for use by workers to resist flying glass and similar injurious pieces, and which can be put on and removed quickly and with ease.

While various changes may be made in the detail construction, it shall be understood that such changes shall be within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A safety armor jack comprising front and rear annor parts permanently joined together at one shoulder location thereof and releasably joined together at the opposite shoulder location, sleeve structures having separable fastening devices to release the sleeve structures from the arms of the worker, one of the sleeve structures being permanently secured to the front and rear armor parts, the other sleeve structure being located at the releasable shoulder location and secured to the rear armor part to thereby permit release of the front part from the other part and from the sleeve structure, said other sleeve structure connected to the rear part comprising two armor parts hingeably joined to each other on the top of the sleeve structure and releasably joined to each other at the bottom thereof, one of the sleeve structure armor parts lying in front and having an extension adapted to underlie the front armor part adjacent to the shoulder location to provide protection to the front of the shoulder.

2. A safety armor jacket comprising front and rear armor body parts, a collar portion joining the upper portions of the parts together at one shoulder of the jacket and separable at the other shoulder thereof, an armor sleeve structure comprising inner and outer armor parts secured to said front and rear armor parts, a wide mesh hinge strip running along the top of the sleeve structure and the one shoulder to the collar to hingedly join the inner and outer parts of the sleeve structure and the front and rear armor parts together, a mesh strip connected to one of the sleeve structure parts at the bottom of the sleeve structure and releasable fastening means for connecting said mesh strip to the other part to close the arm structure about the arm of the wearer, a short mesh strip connected to the upper portion of one of the armor parts along the other shoulder thereof and releasable fastening means for connecting the mesh strip to the upper portion of the other armor part, another armor sleeve structure comprising inner and outer armor parts, said latter sleeve structure having one of its parts joined to one of the body armor parts, a mesh strip hingedly joining the armor parts of the sleeve structure at the top, a parallel mesh strip running along one of the sleeve armor parts and means releasably securing said parallel strip to the other sleeve armor part at the bottom of the armor sleeve structure, wide mesh strips respectively connected to the opposite sides of one of the body armor parts and running from a location under the sleeve structures to the lower end of the jacket and releasable means for securing said latter mesh strips along the other of said body armor parts.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 302,901 Fenne Aug. 5, 1884 818,351 Clark Apr. 17, 1906 956,203 Sibold Apr. 26, 1910 1,252,187 Shane Jan. 1, 1918 1,354,868 Albert Oct. 5, 1920 1,799,572 Sweeney Apr. 7, 1931 2,338,535 Pfleumer Jan. 4, 1944 2,391,535 Zelano Dec. 25, 19 45 FOREIGN PATENTS 3,264 Great Britain Jan. 4, 1912 130,577 Austria Nov. 25, 1932 914,986 France Oct. 23, 1946 

